by Albert Camus
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Product Description
Through the story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on an Algerian beach, Camus explored what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd." First published in 1946; now in a new translation by Matthew Ward.
Amazon.com
The Stranger is not merely one of the most widely read novels of the 20th century, but one of the books likely to outlive it. Written in 1946, Camus's compelling and troubling tale of a disaffected, apparently amoral young man has earned a durable popularity (and remains a staple of U.S. high school literature courses) in part because it reveals so vividly the anxieties of its time. Alienation, the fear of anonymity, spiritual doubt--all could have been given a purely modern inflection in the hands of a lesser talent than Camus, who won the Nobel Prize in 1957 and was noted for his existentialist aesthetic. The remarkable trick of The Stranger, however, is that it's not mired in period philosophy. The plot is simple. A young Algerian, Meursault, afflicted with a sort of aimless inertia, becomes embroiled in the petty intrigues of a local pimp and, somewhat inexplicably, ends up killing a man. Once he's imprisoned and eventually brought to trial, his crime, it becomes apparent, is not so much the arguably defensible murder he has committed as it is his deficient character. The trial's proceedings are absurd, a parsing of incidental trivialities--that Meursault, for instance, seemed unmoved by his own mother's death and then attended a comic movie the evening after her funeral are two ostensibly damning facts--so that the eventual sentence the jury issues is both ridiculous and inevitable. Meursault remains a cipher nearly to the story's end--dispassionate, clinical, disengaged from his own emotions. "She wanted to know if I loved her," he says of his girlfriend. "I answered the same way I had the last time, that it didn't mean anything but that I probably didn't." There's a latent ominousness in such observations, a sense that devotion is nothing more than self-delusion. It's undoubtedly true that Meursault exhibits an extreme of resignation; however, his confrontation with "the gentle indifference of the world" remains as compelling as it was when Camus first recounted it. --Ben Guterson
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Oh, the absurdity!, 2008-08-25
Oh, what does it matter if I write a review about this book or if I don't write a review about this book? Nothing will change. It won't have any affect on anything. In 100 years, I'll be dead, and what difference would it have made if I gave a writeup, or I didn't?
Is anyone ever actually going to read my opinion? And if they do, does my opinion really matter, on a cosmic, macro level? The world will keep on turning, and the sun will keep on burning, and the universe will keep....universing.
It doesn't even matter if you read this book or you don't; if you like it or you don't. It's just an abstract story about a guy, that never actually happened. Not that it would matter even if it had.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Perfect, 2008-08-19
I think to say some one doesn't like some one because they can't REALLY grasp/understand it is one of the most arrogant things some one can do, usually; but in this case its necessary. The Stanger is nothing short of life-changing. Simple fact. People that don't admit it are either too stupid, too jealous, or too afraid to come to terms with it.
I say too afraid because of the implications of a philosophy so obviously true. I say too jealous because most of this book seems like things a lot of people think but never end up saying and, well, getting so much credit for. And I say stupid because this book is great and screw them.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 The Stranger, 2008-08-11
Fast shipping and the book was in excellent condition for what I paid for. Would recommend :)
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
read it for your own reaction., 2008-08-09
This novel is absurd. This is not arguable. The point of this novel is that you react to it -- you see Meursault and his absurd way of going about life, and you feel the need to change your own.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Haunting masterpiece with impact, 2008-08-06
Meursault's story begins with his mother's death; "Maman died today.Or yesterday maybe, I don't know." In first person perspective, he introduces his neighbor and best friend.He explains his world to you, all the while showing minimal emotion toward the tragedies that encroach upon his life. You begin to feel a bond to Meursault as much as you feel his distance. Each event pulls you closer to him, but pushes away correspondingly. As you read the book, you will know Meursault but become only a visitor to his soul as he gets drawn into a murder. Albert Camus has written a novel that crosses the nonsensical with catastrophe.I am unhesitant to propose that this story be read by all who have seen this review. It's a quick read you will enjoy thinking of for days to come.
Thank you for reading,
C.K.
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